Mother of the Year
by Megg22
Summary: Bernie Wolfe is a brilliant doctor and a formidable woman but how does she figure as a mother?
1. Chapter 1

**As a big fan of Bernie Wolfe I wanted to write a story focusing on her. Hopefully there's some other fans out there who will enjoy this :)**

"OK! Can I get a crash team over here please." Dr. Levy called out across Keller as he lowered the hospital bed in order to lay his patient down.

As the crash team headed towards him, Sacha scanned the ward for his colleague.

"Ms. Wolfe!"

Bernie rushed over; briskly placing the files she had been holding into the hands of a nearby nurse. "What happened?"

"We're going to have to take him back into surgery, there's a bleed."

"Right, let's get Mr. Stokes prepped for theatre." She addressed the team surrounding the patient's bed, "Quickly please!"

Having made the call to alert theatre, Bernie waited impatiently for the team to finish so that she could take her patient into surgery. Tapping her fingers on the front desk in agitation, Bernie was just about to order them to hurry when she found herself being tapped on the shoulder. Spinning around to see who was bothering her now, Bernie couldn't help but let a small gasp escape her mouth.

"Hello Mum."

Standing there with her shoulder length blonde hair lightly tucked behind her ear, green eyes gazing forwards and a backpack slung across one shoulder – Bernie took in the sight of her daughter without saying a word. It had been such a long time, there was so much that needed to be said.

"Ms. Wolfe!" Sacha called out for the second time in an attempt to get his colleagues attention. His patient had almost been wheeled to the door as they headed for theatre and he was waiting for Bernie to come along and assist.

Pulled out of her trance-like state by Sacha's voice calling her name, Bernie turned to face her colleague but quickly turned back to face her daughter again.

"We need to go now Ms. Wolfe." Sacha insisted.

Never one to be indecisive or slow in her actions Bernie quickly pulled herself together. With just an apologetic look towards her daughter, Bernie turned towards the patient and began pushing the bed through the double doors. As she walked away the sight of her daughter diminished and with each step she further regretted not having said a single word. But now was not the time for regrets – she had a job to do.

 **o0o**

"That was pretty impressive stuff in there Ms. Wolfe."

"Thank you, Dr. Levy." Bernie replied graciously. She had been trying desperately hard to refrain from using her usual stark and sarcastic responses around her colleague who was so infallibly cheerful.

Returning to the ward, Bernie was hit by a wave of disappointment as she realised that Isabelle had left. Yet again, she'd let her daughter down.

"Ms. Wolfe, your visitor is waiting for you in the staff room. I hope you don't mind, I just didn't think that she should hand around the ward."

"Thank you nurse." Bernie smiled gratefully before rushing off towards the staff room. As she got to the door she took a deep breath as she made a mental note not to mess the opportunity up.

"Izzy, darling, I'm so glad you're here." She walked over to her daughter who was sat at a table with a cup of coffee. Somewhat awkwardly she embraced her before taking a seat next to her. "I'm so sorry about earlier, it was an emergency and I was needed, it's such a busy ward you see and I couldn't –"

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it." Isabelle cut her mother's ramblings and threw them both into an awkward silence.

After a few moments, Bernie tried again; "How have you been? How's Uni going?"

"Let's skip the small talk shall we?" Isabelle couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. She'd told herself that she would make an effort that this could be a new start. Yet, as soon as she faced her mother, no sooner was she reminded of all the pain.

Bernie couldn't help thinking how alike she and Izzy were; both so blunt and direct – perhaps that's why they clashed so often.

"Fine, then what do you want to talk about Izzy?"

"I need to borrow some money."

Before she could stop herself Bernie rolled her eyes.

"Oh for goodness sake, can't you even hear me about before you start judging me?" Isabelle stood up in anger.

"Well come on Izzy!" Bernie stood up too; she wasn't prepared to be confronted by anyone, especially not her own daughter. "You choose not to speak to me for what, almost a year and then suddenly you're here demanding money!"

"I'm not demanding anything, I'm asking you for a loan and I'm only asking because Dad said I had to!" All attempts to hold back her frustration had gone out of the window and she was on the verge of yelling now.

"I should have known your father would have something to do with this." Bernie spat; as much as she loved the man there were two things that they would never be able to agree on – their work and their children.

"Well at least he took the time to listen." Isabelle grabbed her bag and headed for the door. She'd had enough. She should have known that the two of them wouldn't last five minutes together before getting into an argument.

"Isabelle!" Bernie reached out and grabbed her daughter's arm to prevent her from walking away. Although it didn't hurt, Isabelle shook herself free from the grasp as if the very touch had stung her. "That's it is it? Are you just going to walk away for another year?"

"Don't pretend you've missed me." Isabelle's face was expressionless; she wanted to act as though she felt indifferent about this fact and she wouldn't let her mother see how much it really hurt her.

The sudden bleep of Bernie's pager broke through the almost tangible atmosphere. Checking the information, she stepped towards the door. "I've got to go Izzy."

"Of course you do."

"Look, can you just wait here. Please? We need to speak properly."

"I don't – "

"Please Isabelle."

"Fine."

 **o0o**

Having drunk another cup of coffee, read another chapter of the book she'd started on the train and listened to her IPod for about twenty minutes, Isabelle was officially bored out of her mind.

"This is ridiculous." She grumbled to herself. She threw her belongings back into her backpack and got ready to leave. It took her a moment to get her bearings outside of the staff room but after a moment she headed down the corridor directed towards the exit.

"Izzy! Wait!"

Isabelle reconized her mother's voice calling out to her but she didn't stop. She'd tried, she'd made the effort to come here and her mother couldn't even spare her the time to just sit and listen.

"Isabelle stop!" Bernie had almost caught up with her daughter having had to practically run down the corridor.

"Look, you're obviously busy. I can't just wait around for you all day." Isabelle finally stopped and turned to face her mother but she had no intentions of staying.

"Yes, I'm busy, of course I'm busy – how was I supposed to know that you would just turn up here today Izzy?"

"No, you're right, I'll make sure I book an appointment to see you next time mother." Her sarcasm was cutting.

"Oh don't be so ridiculous." Bernie was trying to suppress her anger. No matter what had happened between them, it was unacceptable for her daughter to be so disrespectful.

"Goodbye mum." She started heading towards the exit again.

"You clearly don't need the money that much then do you?" It was a childish comment but Bernie wanted to grab her daughter's attention.

"We both know Dad will give it to me anyway." Isabelle spun around to shoot back her remark but as she did so she came over dizzy and wobbled slightly.

"Izzy, are you alright?" Bernie went to her daughter's side and held her arm to give her some support.

"I'm fine!" Isabelle pulled away from her mother but the sudden movement only served to make her more unstable.

Bernie saw the colour drain from her daughter's face and watched as she collapsed onto the floor in front of her.

"Can I get some help over here please!" She called out as knelt down to help her daughter; whether she wanted her help or not.

 **Please let me know what you think :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all for the positive reviews! Here's an update that I hope you will all enjoy - sorry that it took so long to upload.**

"Mum, stop making such a fuss. I'm fine!" Isabelle propped herself up and blushed in embarrassment at the sight of a crowd of people surrounding her, looking down at her sprawled on the floor.

"Izzy, you collapsed, what happened? How have you been feeling? Have you been unwell? Has anything like this happened before?" Bernie fired questions towards her daughter, half as a doctor, half as a concerned mother. Taking hold of her daughter's wrist she took count of her pulse rate as she spoke, then, forgetting for a moment all that they had been through, she simply held her little girl's hand.

"Mum, I fell, that's all." All the anger had fallen from her voice now.

"You didn't –" Bernie stopped herself short. She didn't want to start an argument now; she didn't want to ruin the moment. "You need checking over."

"Honestly, I'm fine. Maybe I just felt a little dizzy because I haven't eaten anything?" She knew it was a pathetic excuse and that her mother would never drop the subject but she had to try something.

"Then at least come back to the ward so that you can eat something and we can make sure you're OK." Bernie helped her daughter up and smiled at the members of staff who were dispersing now that no emergency assistance was required. Carrying Isabelle's backpack on one shoulder, Bernie placed her free hand on her daughter's back and guided her back to Keller.

 **o0o**

"Dominic, can you get me a spare bed please." Bernie ordered.

"What? I don't need a bed." Isabelle protested.

"It's just a precaution Izzy. If there's nothing wrong, then that's great, but I won't take any chances."

"Oh please." Isabelle rolled her eyes in disbelief – the woman who had risked everything dared to say that she didn't take chances.

"Just go over to the bed Isabelle." Bernie demanded.

Isabelle knew that there was no point in putting up a fight, but she couldn't resist throwing a mocking salute towards her mother in response to her demand. She knew Bernie would hate that and it satisfied her to think that she'd had the last laugh.

"Wow, and who is this little madam eh? I didn't see a new patient arrival on the system." Dominic walked over to Bernie having witnessed her encounter with the younger girl.

"That little madam happens to be my daughter." Bernie left Dominic to make of that what he would. She detested having her personal life put on display for gossips like him to gawp at, but right now she was too wound up to even try to put a stop to it.

Dom smirked as Bernie walked away; he'd doubted that he'd ever see the day when Bernie Wolfe met her match but he had a feeling that this might just be it.

 **o0o**

"So, you're little miss Wolfe I hear. What's your name?" Dom would usually avoid menial cases like this at all costs but his inquisitiveness had gotten the better of him and he'd taken the opportunity to find out a little more about his formidable boss.

"I'm Isabelle. Look, this is absolutely ridiculous, I had a minor fall and I just want to grab something to eat and get out of here."

"Well, your mum wants to get you checked over so if you don't mind I'm going to need to do a few tests."

"Of course, what mother wants, mother gets. Fine, can we just get this over with quickly please?"

Dom smiled; there was no question as to where she had got her feisty attitude.

"So, just visiting your mum for the day?" He asked as he began working.

"Something like that." Isabelle muttered.

"Bet it's nice having her back at home, part of the family again, you know, after the army."

"I wouldn't know." She paused, playing on Dom's obvious eagerness to find out as much as he possibly could about her mother. "I've been living away at Uni."

"Oh right." Dom couldn't hide his disappointment; he'd been hoping for something far more juicer.

"How are we getting on over here?" Bernie returned having been requesting her daughter's medical notes. "Can we get those bloods run through ASAP?"

"Sure, do you want me to get Dr. Levy to take the case, what with –"

"No thank you, I'll treat my daughter."

"Are you sure you want to be that closely involved with a family member?"

"Bloods, now please." Bernie dismissed her colleague with a look that warned him not to push his luck.

 **o0o**

"How are you feeling?"

"I've told you, I'm absolutely fine, just hungry."

"Look, Izzy, if there's anything you need to tell me then now's the time."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm getting your medical records sent over as we speak, so I'll find out if you've been trying to hide –"

"What is wrong with you?" Isabelle shouted as she leaped up out of the bed. "You can't do that!"

"Of course I can, I'm a doctor and right now you're a patient who needs treatment, so I need to get a better picture of your medical history."

"Oh don't give me that, you're just snooping, just trying to be in control like you always do. I'm done, I'm so out of here." She wobbled slightly and leant on the bed for balance.

"For goodness sake Isabelle, get back into the bed, you're clearly not feeling well." Bernie helped her daughter back up onto the bed. Leaning over her, she checked her pupils and said; "I wouldn't have to snoop if you'd just talk to me."

"Look where that got us. We spoke for what, ten minutes, and straight away we were at each other's throats."

"Isabelle, I need to ask you this," Bernie paused and took deep breath, "is there any chance that you might be pregnant?"

"Mum!" Isabelle's outrage was undercut but her suppressing a laugh.

"Well? I'll find out sooner or later Izzy so you might as well just tell me and put us both out of our misery."

"I'm not pregnant."

Bernie let out a small sigh of relief.

"Not quite ready to be a granny, no?"

"It's not funny Izzy. This is not a game and I won't have you here wasting my time!"

"Then let me go!"

"Not until you explain yourself!"

 **o0o**

Dr. Levy walked over to the two women having been filled in on the situation by Dominic. "Umm, is everything OK over here?" The pair's raised voices had drawn the attention of other patients in the ward and they both looked a little embarrassed, as Dr. Levy's interruption had reminded them that they were arguing in a room full of people.

"Fine, thank you Dr. Levy. This patient – um – my daughter – um –Isabelle, she –" Bernie hated being unable to get her words out straight and Dr. Levy was visibly surprised to see her in a fluster.

"I've been brought into the picture thanks Ms. Wolfe and I've just had medical records arrive so I think it would be best all round if I take over from here." He smiled at Isabelle but was quickly pulled aside by Bernie for a quiet word.

"What is it? What do her notes say?"

"That's not appropriate Ms. Wolfe and you know it."

"This is my patient, Dr. Levy." Bernie insisted.

"No, Bernie, this is your daughter and right now you breaching all manner of guidelines. I will take over from here, and if you want to stay, you will stay as a relative." Sacha stood strong, he knew Bernie didn't like being out of the loop but they needed to stick to the rules for everyone's sake.

"Now Isabelle," Sacha returned to her bedside, "I'm Dr. Levy and I'll be taking care of you today. I'd like to continue with some of the tests we started and get you a little more comfortable in this bed."

Isabelle didn't argue.

"Look, I need to attend to my patients Izzy. I'll be back shortly OK. You're in good hands with Dr. Levy." Bernie attempted a smile but it was less than half hearted. As she walked away she ran her hand through her hair and took a deep breath. It was so frustrating being unable to connect with her daughter and even more annoying being pushed to the sideline in her own place of work.

 **o0o**

"Isabelle, I've had a look through your medical records and –"

"I know," she interrupted the doctor before he had to say anymore, she didn't need to have it explained all over again, "just don't tell my mother."

 **Always love to know what you think so please leave a review - I will try my best not to take too long with the next upload :)**


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